Pentagon Press presents its sixth edition of the South Asia Defence and Strategic Year Book. South Asia comprises eight independent countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These countries have contiguous borders with almost similar history, race, religion, language, culture and colonial legacies which make them unique from other regions of the world. What makes this region important in the global context today? The factors include geographic location, interests of the major powers which treat this group of countries as a region, and the security concerns and interests of the states of the region. South Asia is a well defined and distinct geographical region, with near continental dimensions. Its total area is nearly two million square miles. The distance from west to east is more than 2,100 miles (3,379 kilometres) and from extreme north to south is also roughly the same. With approximately one fourth of the worlds population, it ranks third as a major concentration of human beings on earth. Traditionally, South Asia has been an attractive economic proposition for the world.